CABINET FACE-LIFT

ADD BEAUTY AND VALUE TO YOUR KITCHEN

- JAY CORK

We've all seen ugly kitchens-cabinets stained from decades of use or with a cringeworthy outdated style. Hiring a remodeling crew is expensive and can take your kitchen offline for weeks-even months! I'll show you how to give your kitchen a face-lift for a fraction of the cost and disruption.

1 STRIP DOWN THE CABINETS

Remove all the doors, hinges and drawer fronts. Label all the parts for reference later. I used numbers, but you can use anything that helps you remember what goes where.

2 TAKE MEASUREMENTS

Take accurate measurements of each rail and stile to determine the overall size of each cabinet. I drew all my cabinets in SketchUp, but you can use graph paper. Next, measure all doors and drawer fronts, and give each one a name or designation.

3 SAND THE FACE FRAMES

Normally I want to roughen a surface that's being glued, but not with PSA-backed veneer.

For pressure-sensitive adhesive, you want the substrate smooth.

I sanded the painted surface of the rails and stiles with 320-grit sandpaper-not to sand off all the paint, only to make it smooth.

4 CUT VENEER STRIPS

Using the Virutex veneer cutting tool, cut the strips for the face frames 1/8 in. oversize; any more would be wasting material.

5 VENEER THE STILES

Start by veneering the inside edges of the door frames, which creates the look of solid wood when the door is open. Next, apply veneer to the front of the stiles. Trim it flush with a compact router and flush-trim bit.

6 VENEER THE RAILS

Using the FastCap seaming tool and a marking knife, trim the stile veneer flush to the rail. Apply veneer to the rail. Using the seaming tool again, trim it to fit.

7 SAND THE FACE FRAMES